The Need For A Broader Call To Christian Resistance

John Pavlovitz (click here for a bio) runs a website that is well worth reading. The name of the website provides a good description of what the website is about: Stuff That Needs To Be Said. 

In a recent article posted on his website, Pavlovitz runs through a list of politically liberal agenda items that he believes should be part of the Christian resistance. This is nothing new for a Christian website. There are at least a few Christian websites that, using different terminology, talk about what should be a part of Christian resistance to the culture. Those websites are politically conservative. And so their agenda items, such as opposition to abortion, opposition to same-sex marriage, and support for the religious liberty of businesses not wanting to serve the LGBT community in ways that it serves the heterosexual community, concern themselves with hot topic political issues.

In his article called A Manifesto For Christian Resistance (click here for the article),  he does what his conservative counterparts do: he talks about how Christians should support or oppose political stands on certain issues. Only for Pavlovitz, the political stands he wants Christians to support are politically liberal positions. These positions include opposing bigotry and the expelling of illegal immigrants from the country, opposing white supremacy and fascism, opposing the demonization Muslims, supporting abortion rights for women, and opposing theocracy and the 'violence, misogyny, and nationalism' that they associate with American Evangelicalism as well as opposing both homophobia and transphobia.

The problem here is the divide between politically liberal Christians and politically conservative Christians. It, in part, represents a divide between Christians who are politically liberal and politically conservative. But what should be the manifesto for Christians whose only real differences is in their politics? For example, I could agree with Pavlovitz on most of the political stands he supports except for his support for a woman's right to an elective abortion. In addition, I believe that a better distinction must be made between those who believe that the LGBT community must have full equality in society from those who don't. All too often, the distinction been whether people believe God either accepts or rejects homosexuality or transexualism. However, there are some who believe that God's Word condemns homosexuality but believe that the LGBT community must have full equality in society.

In other words, the only real weakness of Pavlovitz's article here is the assumption that his political concerns are always inline with what God teaches. What follows is that his manifesto for Christian resistance is a manifesto for some, not all Christians. It is a manifesto for those Christians who hold to his liberal political views. But what about those Christians who hold to other political views. Is there any chance that we can have a manifesto that is both big and abstract enough to represent Christians whose different beliefs revolve more around political rather than theological beliefs. Such a manifesto could not only help the divisiveness we see among fellow Christians, it could partially heal the divisiveness in our nation.